We have reduced prices on all of our Desk Pads / Notepads, a great promotional product and a most useful office item. Available in A3, A4, A5, A6 & DL sizes with 50 or 100 sheets of 100gsm bond per pad, full colour printing to all sheets with a grey hard board back.

Please note that our offices will be closed for customer support from Friday 19th December and will re-open on Monday 5th January 2015.

Our print works will still be in operation on certain days over the festive period; we will endeavor to dispatch any orders placed on our website as soon as possible, please note there may be delays to our usual turnaround times as a result of Couriers and Paper Merchants being closed, etc.

May we take this opportunity to thank you for your custom and support during 2014 and we wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

There are 4 main printing methods: Digital, Large Format Digital, Lithographic and Web. Most Printers will have 1 or 2 capabilities and a small selection will have all 4 (like us).

Make sure that your chosen Printer is suited to the job at hand, for example, a quote on a long run of Duplicate Pads from a Lithographic Printer may well be much more expensive than a quote from a Web Printer, or a quote from a Printer running a B2 Lithographic Press may be more than a Printer running a B1 Lithographic Press. Some Printers are more geared up for specific items/volumes and therefore can produce them at a fraction of the cost, so sourcing the right Printer is essential.

Digital
Mainly used for short runs (quantities below 500 approx.) with short to medium extents (up to approx. 500pp, e.g. manuals). Also used for short run colour work such as invitations, posters, menus and event material etc. It is suitable for jobs up to and including A3 sized paper although some printers cater for A2 digital but it’s not as common.Paper Weights: Approximately 300gsm-350gsm maximum.

Lithographic (Litho)
Known in the industry as the best quality printing method, litho print is mainly used for full colour work and longer runs (quantities above 500) with medium to long extents (greater than 500pp), although nowadays some Printers (such as us) are able to offer short run lithographic print, usually Printers with the volume to batch print (running multiple jobs at the same time).Paper Weights: Approximately 60gsm – 400gsm. The maximum print size of machines will vary by Printer, as a guide a B1 Press can take 1020mm x 720mm sheets, a B2 Press 720mm x 520mm sheets and a B3 Press 520mm x 360mm sheets, although actual print areas will be smaller than these dimensions.

Web
Mainly used for large extent book work such as newspapers, encyclopaedias, dictionaries and specialised prints such as No Carbon Required (NCR).Paper Weights: Approximately 32gsm-60gsm maximum. Very lightweight papers only as the paper is supplied on rolls.

Author – Eugene Tyson

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]]>http://www.stationery-direct.co.uk/blog/printing-methods-explained/feed/0Save with our Stationery Save Packshttp://www.stationery-direct.co.uk/blog/save-with-our-stationery-save-packs/
http://www.stationery-direct.co.uk/blog/save-with-our-stationery-save-packs/#commentsTue, 18 Mar 2014 14:32:34 +0000adminhttp://www.stationery-direct.co.uk/blog/?p=1354
Our Stationery Save Packs remain a popular choice on our website. They allow our customers to purchase three popular products all at the same time and make additional savings (when compared to the purchase of the same items individually).

You can use your existing print ready PDF artwork and simply upload it with your order, or if your existing Business Stationery needs refreshing or if you would like to change your design; then we offer a Professional Design Service which is extremely cost effective.

What’s more, our Stationery Save Packs start from as little as £129 +vat and we offer free delivery on all orders.

As well as Business Stationery, we print a wide range of other items such as; Duplicate Pads, Brochures, Leaflets, Flyers, Postcards, Stickers, Mousemats, Desk Pads & much more! If there is a product you are interested in that is not shown on our website, please get in touch as we may still be able to help you.

It’s go time! The Boss has given you a task to get creative with a new business card, a new leaflet, a new brochure, a new anything! It needs to be printed and delivered, where do you start?

Well, you start at the end of course!
“That doesn’t make sense…” I hear you all cry. What I mean is you need to think about how your product will look when it’s all printed and finished.

Now, I’m not talking aesthetics, or branding, or anything on that scale! I’m talking simply about choosing the right paper that fits what you’re trying to achieve. The paper it’s printed on tells the overall story of what you’re selling. What’s worse is, if you get this wrong then it’s very costly to get this printed again!

If you’re not sure what you need then just get in touch for advice or for a sample of a similar printed product. Requesting a sample of something similar will give you a good idea as to what you are going to get when your order is finally delivered.

Key things when considering the type of paper:

What is your product; is it a brochure, a flyer, a business card, a book, a map?

Durability; is this something you think that will be kept for days/months/years, or is it likely it will be used as a coaster? Is it winding up in a Doctor’s waiting room or is it something carried around in a bag all day?

What is it about; is it an invitation (a fancy stock perhaps?), a business card (a durable 400gsm stock), a leaflet (perhaps 130gsm/150gsm/170gsm gloss or silk?).

Will it need to be perforated, will it need to be glued, will it need to be laminated, will it require extra folds, does it need to be written on?

All these questions must be answered so the printer can recommend a paper suitable for the task.

There are two main types of paper (General guide not written in stone)

Uncoated
Ideal for Business Stationery such as Letterheads and Compliment Slips or anything that needs to be written on or overprinted (although a Coated Silk stock is sometimes suitable for this).

Colours will always look more vibrant on Coated paper than on Uncoated. This is because Uncoated paper is more pourous than Coated paper and colours tend to saturate into the paper giving them a slightly duller appearance.

There really is no rule about what type of paper you should use, I’ve listed some general use above but it’s not as clear cut as that. The paper should be functional to what the product is. Have you ever received a postcard/leaflet/flyer/brochure or something else that was printed and you couldn’t write on it? Ever had a booking form that you had to tear off and then it rips into your completed form? That’s all down to poor paper choice! If your customer cannot write a message or address on their postcard, cannot write on a booking form or tear off that booking form easily, they are going to get pretty frustrated!

If your product has anything more than 2 pages then it’s going to have to be folded/binded/stapled/glued.
Printing on paper is a tricky business and so is folding that paper! As an example, get yourself 60 or so A4 sheets of paper, stack them neatly with the longest edge facing you, grab both sides of the paper and fold them to the middle, what happened? Did all the edges meet up nicely? No? Well that’s called shingling or creep*. This is what happens when paper is folded in a bunch. Depending on the GSM of the paper chosen, creep can start occuring in paper anywhere from 60 pages to 90 pages.

*You as an end user do not have to worry about shingling/creep in your design, that is not your concern, that is the printer’s concern and they will adjust for that when the time comes. But giving them a heads up will certainly help them out and make your project go a lot smoother.

Binding Options – There are two main types of folding for a large page count:

1. Saddle Stitched – They literally throw the product over a machine like a saddle and it’s then stitched (stapled). Saddle stitching requires that all pages can be folded to the finished size and then stitched and trimmed.

2. Perfect Bound – Paper is stacked on top of each other, it can be glued or threadsewn or both. If your paper stock is too heavy and/or you have more than 60-90 pages then you will more than likely need to have it perfect bound.

Finally
Always check with your printer well in advance as to what stock is available. If they have to order special paper for your product then it may have an affect on the cost and turnaround time.

Summary:

Think about how your product will be finished before you start the project.

Make sensible decisions about the paper type.

Coated or Uncoated (or something else, Recycled maybe?)

Will it need to be folded?

Type of Binding.

Always discuss with your chosen printer.

Is that all I need to know?
How about you drop me a comment below and I will endeavour to respond.